Jail construction



NOV. 3, 1931. D, GARBER 1,830,431

JAIL CONSTRUCTION Fi led Jan. 8, 1951 I I l 3 g i u SAFETY 4 I lvan-1am: 4 Q g & jj -1 ATTORNEYS Patented Nov. 3, 1931 HARRY n. GARBER,OF CUYAHOGA. FALLS, orrro, assrenoa TO THE VAN Donn Inon wonxs COMPANY,or CLEVELAND, orrro, A CORPORATION or onto JAIL CONSTRUCTION Applicationfiled January 8, 1931. Serial No. 507,418.

' This invention relates to jail structures wherein a plurality of wallshaving sliding doors are so related that the doors move in diiferentplanes which planes may be paral- 153 lel or. angularly related. 12; isdesirable that the movement and locking of jail doors be controlled froma common point and an improvedapparatus for the purpose is illus tratedand described in my copending appli- Hi-O cation: Serial -507,4:17,filed January, 8,

1931. Said application illustrates the system there shown as applied toa plurality of doors located in a common wall and therefore to move in acommon plane. Such system in- 1Z1-5 cludes a plurality, of gap nuts onefor each door, all the gap nuts beingcarried by a pull bar underoperator control; Each door has a latch bolt engageable with ordisengageable from its gap nut under individual operator T320 control sothat any or all doors may be caused 'to follow the pull bar opening andclosing movement. Such a system of door control is broadly old andwell-known in the art.

It is the object of the present invention to I apply such system todoors moving in different planes, that is, to sliding doors located uponangularly related walls.

Another ob 'ect of the invention is to supply such a system to the doorsof spaced walls which may be parallel, by means rigidly interconnectingthe pull bars of the two spaced walls yet not extending therebeyond.That is, the means of the present invention are arranged entirelybetween the two parallel walls the doors of which are to be connected.This object is accomplished by employing for the purposeendless meanssuch as a chain bent about sprockets as will appear.

The exact nature of he invention together with further objects andadvantages thereof will be apparent from the following description takenin connection with the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is ahorizontal section through a pertinent portion of a jail installationshowing the parts thereof interrelated according to my invention; andFig. 2 is a detail in elevation of certain parts appearing in Fig.1.

With reference now to the drawings, 1 and 2 represent parallel walls and3 a wall extending transversely therebetween. walls being part of jailstructure, are barred as indicated. The walls 1 and 2 are of somesubstantial extent, and have a number of partition walls 4: extendingtherefromto deline cells as indicated. CelLNo. I may be in front of thetransverse walls 3 and the other cells therebehind; so that, with theexception of cell No. I thedescribed wall structure defines a prisonerscorridor with a row of'cells on either side thereof. In the parallelwalls 1 and 2 which are cell front walls there is an opening for eachcell, all of these openings leading each from its cell into the spacebetween the cell rows. 7 2 may be carried beyond the transverse wall 3,and a wall 5- extended therefrom to the front corner of cell No. I, sothat this latter cell opens into the safety vestibule provided by thewall 5, and in front of the wall All of the other cell openings leadintothe prisoners corridor behind the wall 3. The wall 3 also has anopening connecting the safety vestibule with the prisoners corridor.

For each of these openings there is provided a sliding door each movablealong the wall in which its opening is located. Thus the door 6 isindicated for the opening 7 of cell No. I, and the door 8 is indicatedfor the opening 9 of the wall 3, the door 6 being in open position andthe door 8 in closed position.

' For operating the doors of the cell front wall 1, as more particularlyshown in my copending application to which reference has been made, apullbar 10 is provided extend- These 3 The cell front wall details ofthe mechanism for the purpose being immaterial here. For ea'chdoor'ofits wall the pull'bar is provided with a gap nut 12. Each door carries alatch bolt 13.

Each latch bolt is movable on its door to engage orclear its gap nut 12,and is under operator control from the box 11 for this purpose. Therange of motion of the pull bar 10 is of course, that of the doors ofthe i and a gap nut is provided therefor. This gaged.

gap nut 15 is mounted on endless means which may include the pull rods16 and which includes flexible elements such as the chains 17. Theendless means is positioned so that its stretches extend and move alongthe wall 3, and to this end a pair of sprockets 18 are arranged at theends of the wall and the chain sections 17 bent thereabout. t will beapparent. that the gap nut 15 will thus move along the wall 3 tocorrespondingly move the door 8 when its latch bolt 14: is en- If thesprocket 18 be positively driven by the pull rod 10 it will beapparentthat the gap nut 15 of the wall 3 may have motion corresponding with thegap nut 12 of the wall. 1.

Tothis end a rack 19 is provided on the pull bar 10. An idler gear 20 isarranged to mesh with the rack 19 to drive the gear 21. This gear 21 isrigidly associated with the sprocket 18. The proportion and'arrangementof the parts. is such that travel of the gap nuts 12 and 15 will becoextensivei and, inFig. 1 of the drawings, when the gap nut 12 moves tothe right thega-p nut 15 will move clownwardly, both gap nuts thusmoving in dooropening direction. Obviously, were it desired. that thegap nut 15 travel inthe opposite direction, by omission of the idlergear 20 and intermeshing of the gear 21 directly with the rack 19 thiscould be accomplished.

A pull bar- 22 is arranged to control the doors of the wall 2' inexactly thesame manner as the pull-bar 10 controls those of the wall 1.That. the pull bar 22 may have mo tion with the pull bar 10, a rack 23is provided, on the pull bar 22 and a gear 24 meshing withthe rack isrigidly associated with the corresponding sprocket 18. Obviously by'this arrangement the pull. bars 10 and 22 will have coextensive parallelmotion in. the same direction, that is. they will move-with each otheras to both distance and direction.

Of course, were the idler gear 20 omitted as above described thepull bar22 could be caused to move the same-distance but in the oppositedirection from the pull bar 10. It will be noted that by the describedarrangement positive interconnection is had between the gap nuts of thethree walls by means not requiring clearance vspace beyond either ofthe" two parallel walls. 7

What I claim is:

1. In a jail structure having a pair of cell rows with a corridortherebetween, the front walls of said cells having door openings leadinginto said corridor and sliding doors for the openings, pull bar meansarranged for operator-controlled movement along one of said cell frontwalls to control the doors thereof, pull bar means arranged formovementalong'the other cell front wall to'co'ntrol the doors thereof, each ofsaid. pull bar means having a rack member, and means interassociatingsaid rack members to cause the second pull bar to move with saidoperator-controlled pull bar, said interassociating means being locatedbetween said racks and not extending beyond either thereof.

2. In a jail structure having a pair of cell rows withia corridortherebet-ween, the front walls of said cells having door openingsleading into said corridor and sliding doors for the openings, pull barmeans arranged for operator-controlled movement along one of said cellfront walls to control the doors thereof, pull bar means arranged formove ment along the other cell front wall to control the doors thereof,each of said pull bar means having a rack member, and meansinterassociating said rack members to cause the second pull bar to movewith said open ator-controlled pull bar, said interassociating meansincluding'an endless means having a pair ofbights bent about a pair ofsprockets. each sprocket being positively associated with one of saidracks. Y

stretch portion extending along the path of movement of the second door,rotary members at the ends of said stretch to locate bights in said-en'dlessmeans, one of said rotary members comprising a sprocket, thecorresponding portion of said endless means comprising a chain bentthereabont, and gear means arranged to causesaid sprocket to be drivenby said rack.

4:. In a 1311 structure having a pair of angularly related walls, saidwalls having door openings and sliding doors therefor, gap notcontrolling pullbar means arranged for operator controlled movementparallel with idly associated with said pull bar means, endless gapnutcontrolling means for the other door having a gap nut carrying stretchportion extending along the path of movement of the second door, rotarymembers at the ends of said stretch to locate bight'sin said endlessmeans, and rotary idler means interconnectv "'100 3. In a jail structurehaving a pair of that of one of said doors, arack member riging saidrack with one of said rotary members for positive drive therebetween,said endless means having positive driven connection with said lastnamedrotary member.

5. In a jail structure having a pair of angularly related walls, saidwalls having door openings and slidingdoors therefor, pull bar means forone of said doors arranged for operator-controlled movement, a rackmember rigidly associated with said pull bar means, endless gap nutcontrolling means for the other door having a gap nut carrying stretchportion extending along the path of movement of the second door, rotarymembers at the ends of said stretch to locate bights in said endlessmeans, one of said rotary members comprising a sprocket, and thecorresponding portion of said endless means comprising a chain bentthereabout, a gear rigidly associated with said sprocket, and gear meansinterconnecting said rack with said gear for positive drivetherebetween.

6. In a jail structure having a pair of cell rows with a corridortherebetween, the front walls of the cells of saidrows having dooropenings leading into said corridor and sliding doors for the openings,a corridor wall extending across between said cell front walls andhaving an opening leading into said corridor and a sliding door for saidopening, gap nut controlling pull bar means arranged for operatorcontrolled movement along one of said cell front walls to control thedoors thereof, gap nut controlling pull bar means arranged for movementalong the other cell front wall to control the doors thereof, each ofsaid pull bar means having a rack member, endless gap nut controllingmeans for the corridor door having a gap nut carrying stretch portionextending along the path of movement of the corridor door, sprocketmembers at the ends of said stretch to locate bights in said endlessmeans, the corresponding portions of said endless means comprisingchains bent about said sprocket members, and gear means associating saidsprocket members each with one of said racks.

7. In a jail structure having a pair of cell rows with a corridortherebetween, the front walls of the cells ofsaid rows having dooropenings leading into said corridor and sliding doors for the openings,a corridor wall extending across between said cell front walls andhaving an opening leading into said corridor and a sliding door for saidopening, gap nut controlling pull bar means arranged for operatorcontrolled movement along one of said cell front walls to control thedoors thereof, gap nut controlling pull bar means arranged for movementalong the other cell front wall to control the doors thereof, each ofsaid pull bar means having a rack member, endless gap nut controllingmeans for the corridor door having a gap nut carrying stretch portionextending along the path of movement of the corridor door, sprocketmembers at the ends of said stretch to locate bights in said endlessmeans, the corresponding portions of said endless means compris- Intestimony whereof I hereby affix my signature.

HARRY D. GARBER.

